Hocutt: Texas Tech to host UT Thanksgiving Weekend 2020

On his weekly radio show, Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt said Wednesday that he expects the Red Raiders to host the Texas Longhorns on Thanksgiving weekend in 2020.  Here’s why that is far from idea for Texas Tech.

When the 2019 Texas Tech football schedule was released last week, one of the biggest takeaways was that the Red Raiders’ series with Baylor would be returning to campus after ten years in Dallas and Arlington.

By playing Baylor on the last weekend of the season every-other year at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas Tech was able to avoid having to host a game in Lubbock on the weekend after Thanksgiving.  But according to athletic director Kirby Hocutt, the Red Raiders will not only have to host a game on Thanksgiving weekend in 2020, that game will be the biggest game of the year.

"“It’s our understanding right now that in 2020 we would host the University of Texas on that last weekend of the football schedule.” Hoctt said Wednesday on his weekly radio show.  “Obviously, that’s an understanding, it cold change.  If there’s some competitive disadvantages that would be caused by that, obviously we would not support that.  As we understand everything right now, that’s what we would expect to see; Texas coming to Lubbock that last game of the year, Thanksgiving weekend”"

Texas Tech has ended its season with either Baylor or Texas in every year since 2011 and the arrangement worked well for the Red Raiders.  Those outside of the Texas Tech family might not understand why it is less than optimal for Texas Tech to host a game the weekend after the Thanksgiving holiday, especially when many programs around the country would consider it a positive to end the season at home.

With a huge portion of the student body and season ticket base living several hours from Lubbock in areas like Dallas, San Antonio or Houston, it is unrealistic to expect most of those students and fans to travel back to Lubbock on Black Friday to attend a Saturday home game.  Schools like Texas, Baylor, TCU and Texas A&M which are located near major population centers do not have the same concerns about their fans’ ability to get back to campus just two days after Thanksgiving.

Therefore, Texas Tech had made it known to the conference that it preferred not to host a game in Lubbock on the season’s final weekend.  But according to Hocutt, the Big 12 is no longer allowing schools to have input in the scheduling process.

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"There are scheduling principals that exist and that all ten schools have agreed to” Hocutt said, “that prohibits you from playing x-number of consecutive road games or x-number of Thursday night games as a program.  So with those principals in place, the Big 12 Conference determines the conference schedule within those parameters.“So five or six years ago, they would send us two different schedules and we would get to comment on which one we would prefer and offer feedback.  That no longer exists.  The Big 12 conference, consistent with those scheduling principles, sends you what the Big 12 schedule is going to be…”"

As a result, Tech could no longer request to have the Baylor game played on the final weekend of the season in years when the Red Raiders were not set to end the year in Austin, as they have done in every odd-numbered year since 2013.  Now, the biggest home game of the 2020 season, looks like it will fall on the most challenging travel weekend of the year which could result in a lower than capacity crowd.

The last time Texas Tech hosted a game on Thanksgiving weekend was on November 28th, 2010.  The game kicked off at 7 pm with temperatures in the 40’s and a slight drizzle falling as a half-empty stadium saw Taylor Potts and the Red Raiders beat the Houston Cougars 35-20.

Certainly the weather played a role in the sparse crowd that night but so too did the timing of the game.  It will be fascinating to see how many Red Raider fans that live outside of Lubbock, or who travel to see family for Thanksgiving, will flock back to the South Plains to see Texas Tech take on its biggest rival.

Of course, if the game has serious Big 12 implications, there should be no concern about filling Jones Stadium.  However, having to host the biggest game of the year on a weekend when Lubbock typically empties out is certainly not what Hocutt and the Red Raiders would prefer.